Sohail Ahmadi was just two months old when he got separated from his parents during last August’s U.S.-led evacuation of Kabul airport.

At last he has been found and has been reunited with his Afghan family, which hopes he can be with his parents in the United States soon.

It’s a ‘historic day’, says Mohammad Qasem Razawi, his grandfather.

Sohail was just two months old when his parents handed him to a U.S. soldier across an airport wall on August 19. They feared for his safety in the crush. But instead, he went missing.

After a Reuters exclusive published in November led to online posts of information, he was traced to the Kabul home of taxi driver Hamid Safi, who had named him Mohammad Abed and was raising him as his own.

“I entered the airport and saw a baby lying on the ground in a very bad state. I looked around and showed the child to many people but I couldn’t find anyone related to him. I called my wife at home, and I refused to go to America, I brought the child home. I bought him milk, and we have been taking care of the child since that time.”

After more than seven weeks of negotiations and pleas, and a brief detention by Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) police, Safi handed the child to a jubilant Razawi.

The boy’s grandfather had traveled two days and two nights from the northeast to the capital bearing gifts for Safi and his family – including a slaughtered sheep, pounds of walnuts and clothing, Reuters reported.

It’ll be hard to let him go. We love this child, Hamid’s wife Farima says – but he must live with his parents.

They’re in the United States. The boy’s father, Mirza Ali Ahmadi, is a former U.S. embassy security guard. He was nearly inside the airport when he passed the baby over.

But at that moment, the IEA pushed the crowd back.

Officials told the desperate family once they got in that Sohail had probably been evacuated. They could be reunited later.

They ended up at a military base in Texas, with – until the story went public – no idea where he was. The family hopes to be together again soon.